A blog dedicated to sharing beautiful moments as captured through my camera lens.

A rising generation. pt 1

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead

Early yesterday morning Dennis Ngango and myself decided to have a Youth day shoot in the centre of Pretoria. Robbing 7 great, young individuals of their early mornings rest, we headed to the streets to start the day at the crack of dawn and embarked upon a photographic adventure through the CBD.

Youth Day has a special role to play in the hearts of all South Africans, a day that students stood up against the bantu education system and showed not only South Africa, but the world what the power of a united youth was able to achieve. Yesterday, the 16th June, South Africa commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Soweto uprising, in the form of Youth Day.

In light of this, I’ll be having individual features each day of the phenomenal youths of our generation and what they’ve achieved and strive for.

The first of our up and coming youths featured is a dear old friend of mine, Estiaan Kriek, Here’s what he has to say about his achievements…

“Hi,

My name is Estiaan Kriek. I am an accounting student and avid student sportsman at the University of Pretoria. I am goalkeeper for the University of Pretoria’s 1st XI Hockey side as well as the senior Provincial side, the Northerns Blues. After a period of hard work, I have managed to work myself into the SA U/21 Squad with the hope of representing my country at the U/21 World Cup in India during December. My dream ever since a child has been to attend the Olympic Games, a dream that I have tried very hard to pursue. It has been a driving force throughout most of my life.Sport and specifically hockey has been a passion of mine and has provided a great sense of joy over the past couple of years. Playing sport as a student I am often faced with the question “how do you cope?” “How do you find time?” The truth is I don’t, most of the time, but isn’t that the same as life? So yes, it gets tough but it provides me with such sense of joy that I can’t imagine my life without the constant struggle of trying to improve at the thing I love.

So If I can impart a small lesson on you, whoever and wherever you might be it is to never give up your passion. Never compromise what it is that you love. Love is the fundamental force that drives us humans to accomplish. Love and passion drives us to self-betterment and the betterment of others. Yes I understand that many people strive to achieve for the sake of vanity and greed, but in the end they love attention and money. So on this day that represents people striving for change I want to ask you, to use your passion how big or small it may be and allow it to fuel you to the betterment of our society. You may not be able to change the world, but in the end every little bit helps. Allow the love that you have for your passion to drive you through any of your endeavours and hopefully, just maybe humanity will be able to restore some love and peace into this world.”